We think it’s a benefit because we know what we offer has value. It benefits from our experience and it’s designed to get someone to act on something.

Yet our prospects and users have not discovered any of that yet.

You are familiar with the definitions of features -– a product’s or service characteristics, which are you (read: company)-centered –- and that of benefits –- what your client, customer, user gets from using your product and engaging your service.

Because we do understand value based on context, perception, including external signal surrounding the product or service, like social preferences (for example, if Seth Godin or Mari Smith share a link to this post, you will think it's better), and relevance given timing, these are conditions that influence whether it benefits you or not.

For the sake of simplicity, let's say those conditions are met. And they are, by the way, more than one realizes.

When you say that something is free, you associate that in your mind with a benefit. Which is why most buy strategies involve stockpiling free stuff or doing stuff because it's "free" and not because it works, or it's actually helpful, incidentally. To the point that we have a thriving business around paying to store stuff once the garage is filled, and not just when moving from and to places, etc.

From the organization perspective, why is free a feature? Because it's something that is often readily available and which the prospect has no idea they need or want.

As such, the pick often goes to the simplest, less time consuming, most readily available thing you have to get someone to sample a product.

This is not to take away from the value of what is on offer. How many free seminar have you attended and then used the knowledge to actually do something for your business?

The same happens with your customers and prospects. Best practices, case studies, data, charts, how to information -- there's loads of it circulating online every day. Often loads of the same advice rewritten and re-packaged by different people.

Is this advice the most useful for your audience?

For the prospect, user, and client, free is a gift. Yet it becomes a benefit only when it is used, learned, put into practice, and delivers results. Yes, even free books -- the $25-business card, as they call them -- will not do you any good until you read them and put what you learn into practice.

Free is designed to get people into the conversation, yet when the conversation is about your product and service and not about their problem and need, it remains a feature and never becomes a benefit. I will gladly try this and that, yet that doesn’t mean I will purchase your item or avail myself of your services.

Only when what is offered is an experience that truly speaks to your prospect and user’s needs and wants, you begin to convert free from feature to benefit.

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As a side note: It’s interesting to note that in Italian free is gratis (from Lat. variation of gratiis, out of kindness, orig. ablative plural of gratia, which means favor).

So here’s my question to you. What can you do today to make a sampling of what you do go from free as feature to a benefit in your prospects’ minds?

In 2011, the Cardinals introduced dynamic pricing to help more accurately price tickets for individual games and provide fans with more price options.

This means that the team has the ability to adjust ticket prices upward or downward on a daily basis based on changing factors such as team performance, pitching matchups, and the weather.

Tickets to Broadway musicals are being sold this way. The National Hockey League is doing it.

Whether you travel for business or pleasure, you know that airlines have been serving up different prices for years. Their model of yield management and dynamic pricing is incredibly complex and opaque.

New York City cabs implement surge pricing by turning on their off-duty lights. They still stop when you hail them; doors locked and ready to negotiate with you.

Uber dynamic for Uber reliable

An alternative comfortable way of moving from point a to point B is by using Uber, an on-demand car service that allows everyone to have a private driver experience through iPhone, SMS, and web based requests.

Despite the company communications about fare hikes ranging between three to over six times normal rates, Uber customers nationwide felt taken for a ride after requesting an Uber on one of the busiest nights of the year: New Year's Eve.

In exchange for providing cars on demand reliably, Uber used its system to find equilibrium within a market where demand outstripped supply, especially a few hours before and midnight.

Uber uses something airlines, NYC cabs and sports teams/entertainment companies have been using for some time. The difference in how they execute is transparency. Here was a proposed redesign of Uber surge screen. And here's how Uber CEO responded to complains.

Dynamic pricing is based upon input data. The more data a provider has on these inputs, the more likely they are to leverage that data to extract more value from providing equilibrium between supply and demand.

One side of the dynamic pricing coin consumers have become familiar with is daily deals. The other side to discounts and coupons is premiums for things that are scarce.

Getting the pricing right is critical to your business

Pricing is information. Getting it right can affect the growth of your business. As an example, here are some experiments in pricing models by 37Signals. As Jason Fried says:

I thought about the problem and decided to try something new. Instead of doing long, expensive projects, we'd do short, affordable ones. Instead of billing $50,000 for a 15-page website redesign that would take three months, we'd charge $3,500 per page and offer to complete the page in a week. If you want another page, it's another $3,500 and another week. We called it 37express.

It took off. It took the risk out.

Tied to your brand, pricing is one of the key elements you can use to affect behavior.

By anchoring, for example. This is something non profits have learned to do well. If you've seen solicitations for donations by police associations, for example, you will see they pre-print amount levels. Something like $25, $50, $100. The suggestions take care of what in organizations we often refer to as "blank paper syndrome".

You have some ideas that can get you started on your choices. In the book The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford highlights price anchoring by explaining coffee pricing and customer purchasing choices, as I outlined in a post about who gets what and why. I included an example of how supermarkets rearrange the information they provide you to sell more of certain items.

Pricing sends a message to the market and creates expectations about value, says Patrick Lefler in a new ChangeThis manifesto that outlines five rules to help guide your process. These are:

anchoring -- by using different price points

the power of free -- with an example out of Dan Ariely's research

using pricing to innovate --as in the dynamic pricing examples in this post

price wars are a fool's game -- make sure you're trading your model, and keep your eye on why people buy your product

With online products, you can do some testing letting people self select to figure out price points.

Pricing is a strategy. Which one would work best for you? More money for fewer sales, or sales volume? This is the topic of two in depth case studies published at Jason Cohen's site.

Become intimately familiar with your numbers -- what you need to bring in to earn reasonably good margins on your work.

We do understand value by context, as in the example of Uber being more reliable than a taxi service and the service pricing scale based upon that and demand on one of the busiest nights of the year in NYC.

Which is why you should think in terms of creating the conditions to earn the right price point. Because it's not just about squeezing out the last dollar from a customer in the name of profit. It's also about building the basis for repeat business by delivering on your promises.

[adapted from an article in the January issue of the Premium Newsletter]

Every so often I come across an interview where the subject is someone very likeable.

In the case of Danny DeVito, someone who also works incredibly hard while remaining good humored.

"The way I see it, what you've got to do is think of now, this moment. If you're analysing the past, or anticipating too far into the future, you don't really concentrate on what you're doing in this moment, and that's the most important thing. Right now!" [Danny DeVito, The Observer]

I like the part where he says he likes to connect with people, talk to everyone.

That's very Italian, at least it's something I understand well (DeVito is Italo-American) and appreciate about my roots.

You could always meet someone interesting on a train, waiting for the bus to go to school (no special school buses, and we walked to the stop, rain or shine), or walking and biking around town. I remember especially standing in line at the bank or the post office.

The Made in Italy thing is my not being average to DeVito's height. Instead of looking at the way I see things differently as a disadvantage, I highlight it as an advantage. So I won't get the college jokes made with those growing up in the U.S., and occasionally I still mispronounce words.

It's good to hear a successful person say he focuses on the opportunity right in front of him. It does work out in the end. You just need to keep at it, especially at being you, and believe it will work out. DeVito is very Zen about it.

The value of not being average is also surrounding yourself with smart people to help carry the ball forward -- mentors, teachers, friends, and peers.

Collaboration with a diverse team is the most exciting part of work, because you get to be yourself and complement other people who are also being themselves and using who they are. Delivering on your promises starts by working to and with the strengths of the people around you.

When you work in B2B corporations or as a consultant to complex industries, you get the best gift you could possibly receive: that of becoming a supporting element of why things work. It's like doing the parts that keep the scene working for all the others in it.

I choose to work with great people to design and execute digital brands in highly competitive industries, wherever they are.

As quoted by JK Rowling in her 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech -- a writing gift to those of us who write to inspire, and a delivery masterpiece to those of us who deliver keynote addresses.

This video is on the permanent watch and listen over lunch playlist of my iPad. You can find the transcript of the entire text here. I prefer to have the two combined as a beacon and reference during the most complex projects.

The themes Rowlings refers to in her speech are:

the benefits of failure -- ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it

the importance of imagination -- we do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better

I have had a similar experience with the stripping away of the inessential and the need to stop pretending to yourself to be anything other than what I was. This to me is how you execute on follow your passion, finish the work that matters to you.

You do emerge from failure stronger, and those who have failed recognize that strength in you. I've had the privilege of working with many who have -- both as managers/leaders and as clients/leaders. Adversity is the path to confidence in your own abilities, and in the nature of your relationships.

Fun quotes from the speech:

The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation!

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction;

On empathy:

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.

"As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters." [Seneca]

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And so it is with organizations: what we achieve on the inside, will change how we operate in trade. Our ability to make better promises in business is predicted upon keeping the promises we make.

The craziest thing about having written more than 1,850 posts is that one often forgets or overlooks ground they already covered. We do take ourselves and what we know for granted.

I don't need to look at data to know the most searched terms on this blog.

That's because I generate most direct searches here using the Lijit search box. All other blog searches come from Google.com and I can see those in my dashboard. I analyze them by keyword and extrapolate why the searches were conducted by cross referencing trends over time.

See the truncated URL? Early on, I didn't always remember to check that the URL made sense and TypePad allowed only so many characters back then.

I used this example to show you how your corporate Website holds many content clues that go potentially untapped.

Using small data to back up anecdotal information

We talk about big data with a sense of awe today. However, as we learned with Robert J. Moore over four video interviews, there's a plenty of small data you already have and can use to segment customers to infer information that can lead to insights.

This past week I ran an experiment on this site, as I often do.

With the exception of one post, I published lightly updated re-runs of blog posts from four years ago.

Here's what I learned: many of those posts are timeless. In other words, they contain advice and examples that are evergreen -- valid over time.

It was a good test and it gave me content ideas based upon the reactions in social networks. Four years ago we didn't have so many different ways to see our content amplified in social networks and to document the associated reactions to it.

Connected customers, in this case my readers, have an effect on the kind of content that works.

Do you ever think of re-testing content within different contexts? Try it, the results may susprise you.

Internal and external searches

The other interesting data point is comparing internal searches with external. Why is looking at both kinds of searches useful?

With the exception of the area reserved to HR-related issues, communication executives may not specifically address the needs of one of the largest customer segments for the company Website: employees.

However, in the age of the connected customer, employees are an even more important segment to address. URL-sharing is not just for blogs and social networks. People have been sharing information before Twitter and Facebook using email.

What changed is that people are now comfortable using technology to share -- privately or in public. Instead of writing an explanation when someone asks them a question, your colleagues are more likely to share a link. Links are the currency of the Web.

As we've detailed here, Websites can be created as community building platforms in addition to helping with editorial impact and calls to action. The name of the game is involvement.

Customers may be asking questions your teams can answer easily by conducting searches on your company Website, for example.

From an SEO standpoint, Wil Reynolds addressed writing to capture traffic from external searches conducted by customers directly on Google.com.

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In this month's Premium Newsletter main article I delve into another facet of content we often forget: Storytelling, the concepts of digital distribution and community, and how almost all the value of using social technologies is in performing creative acts of connection to opportunity.

Sign up now and don't miss the April issue, which will go out tomorrow at 8am EST.

There are many ways to tackle the conversation on the difference between fads and trends. My first thought when Neil Perkin asked me to participate in a post and deck he produced last month was thinking about it in terms of culture, over time.

"A trend is driven by something more macro (than a micro explanation), something running through the whole culture. Ask how will this [insert thing here] change us? With what consequences?"

Over time is important, as seen over at his wrap post containing the definition of fad from students.

Since we all agree that trends develop over time, I thought I'd revisit with you a series of posts I did on connections about five years ago at this site.

A note on comments: because I installed Disqus, the TypePad comments from those posts are masked and thus not visible.

Connections: fad or trend?

Is there ever going to be a time when connection is cataloged as fad? Although we do talk about the virtue of dis-connecting from social networks and online media, connection is a human need and desire -- we are social animals.

In the inaugural post, I talked about what the term means for marketing:

In marketing, connections live right alongside the brands that resonate with us. While when you hear someone say they are "connected", they may mean that they are in the inner circle of people and issues, to them personally that may also mean they feel included.

Today, connected customers are bringing about new, creative ways to do business.

your connections need tender and loving care (TLC) to flourish. This means attention, time, and the secret fairy dust: interest. In other words, it's not about you, it's about them. Before you can have a return on involvement with any activity, you need to have involvement.

A connection is not a one time deal, it actually develops from an initial spark of interest. Imagine the life force of your connections as a positive spiral.

One word about the dynamics of ecosystem -- whenever you introduce new elements into it, you may have a disruptive effect on the components of the existing environment. I would wager that if the new element is introduced as part of a strategy that adapts to the center and context of that ecosystem it makes the learning curve less steep and the system itself more resilient.

The blog ecosystem illustrates how to maintain a very large network utilizing your personal resources in time and effort while making sure that everyone benefits.

Apple can have that kind of set up at their stores because the people who show up are not looking to be sold on a product -- they already know they want it; by and large, they are buyers. The products sell themselves. The staff at the store is there to assist you complete your story, not tell you theirs -- it's a big difference.

The connection occurs before you've ever set foot in the place -- it happens as people's stories come alive in their imagination thanks to Apple products.

Be secure and confident enough to offer value first and never worry about what you get back. This bears repeating at least once -- never worry about what you get back. I can give you dozens of examples of professionals who behave this way and get plenty of referral business. No one forgets someone who is present in the conversation with them.

the coffee and pastry are an excuse. What they are really all seeking at regular intervals is an opportunity to be social -- to take a break from walking around town, or to stop while on their way from one place to another. The bar (as we call it here) is a true destination in its own right.

The bar is a must for Italians. At least once a day each has a special appointment with coffee and pastry or snack. There are plenty of people wanting a break, and plenty of places.

Yet, some places sit quite empty, while others are packed with people. Is it the coffee? Do some places order a unique blend while others serve a lesser bean? Or perhaps it's the pastries? Maybe there are delicacies that only some carry?

No on both accounts. It is about the people -- behind the counter and in front of it.

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In this issue of the monthly Premium Newsletter, I discuss a smarter way to network, one used by successful executives to connect with people and get more out of those connections.

Does personalization appeal to you? Are you spoiled by product choices? Screen and memory size, color, shapes and materials -- the choices afforded by the decline in production costs for objects that feel custom-made.

How about marrying your favorite app with your most visited network? Do you view it as an arranged affair or a match made in Heaven?

Quality, convenience, value, and in stock? How to make every shopper's dream come true while fending off the competition.

Apple, Facebook, Instagram, and Target

The brands making headlines this week interest me because they highlight inflections in broader trends and discussion points.

The three stories that caught my eye this week are:

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Jean-Louis Gassée predicts that the end is nigh for Apple -- the end of one screen size fits or rather pleases all, that is. He breaks down his argument by weaving different angles into one argument:

How long before customers look left, look right, see everyone with the same phone or tablet and start itching for something different?

[...] Apple has long ceased to be marginal, on the brink of disaster, imprudently challenging established giants. Apple has become a dominant brand whose rise to ubiquity now requires a differentiation it didn’t need in pre-iOS years.

[...] iPad. Unit sales are climbing faster than the iPhone and sameness is — or soon will be — an issue. There’s an “obvious” solution: Our old friend, the rumored 7” tablet (measured on the diagonal).

[...] Now that Apple has become The Man, the company might have to adopt the Not A Single Crack In The Wall strategy used by the previous occupant of the hightech throne.

The one-size-fits-all simplicity that has served Apple well may not be the way of the future.

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Paul Ford incisive commentary on the acquisition of Instagram by Facebook is summed up in the title -- when your favorite app sells out -- and in the process enlightens readers on how:

On the web, “product” has gone meta. Companies once made sleds or dreamcatchers or software, but that’s all outsourced; an Internet product is very often a thing that lets other people make things — a kind of metaproduct — and you can get 30 million people working for you, for free, if you do a good job of it.

[...] All of those products together are worth some billions. [...] if you take them separately, there’s an awful lot of them — even if you don’t include all the Mafia Wars plugins and Scrabble ripoffs. From a certain angle, Facebook runs the risk of becoming like Apple before Steve Jobs returned — too many products, each with teams sworn to defend them.

Then along comes Instagram. Instagram has as many employees as you can count on your fingers (if you have polydactyly) and does a sum total of one thing. It’s beloved and hip, two things Facebook is not, and plus the company is pure nerd candy.

Ford concludes that Facebook bought the thing that is hardest to fake. It bought sincerity.

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At HBR, Frances Frei and Ann Morriss started a good conversation on Target and the threat of free riders. They paint the picture in the post -- Target shoppers are browsing comfortably in the company's high-design stores, then close the deal online with lower-priced vendors -- then ask: What should Target do?

From the comments:

SKennedy says:

1. If you're going to compete on in-store experience, then you better have a really nice store. Make the store environment somewhere I wouldn't mind hanging around for a while.

2. Have a sales staff. It's a lot easier to put an item back on the shelf when you're all alone. It's harder to tell an actual person helping you that you don't want to buy it because you might save a buck or two online.

3. Reduce the time from selecting a product to paying. The longer the delay before I pay, the greater the chance I change my mind.

4. Reduce the number of similar items on the sales floor. This also avoids option overload.

5. Increase the number of exclusive brands.

ABones says:

Here's what absolutely blows my mind about Target: when you search for an item (or category thereof) on their website, they actually have...a Google Adsense widget on every page, directing you to other retailers.

Many pointed out that blurring the lines between bricks and clicks would benefit Target, along with store brands and unique products.

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It's online and offline, Web and mobile, social and search -- both/and.

The 12 habits of highly connective people

(1.) believe you can make a difference

(2.) think knowledge as a service

it's an overused expression, it really does apply. We live in a remix culture, where individuals, industries, and media will thrive by allowing the exchange of ideas. That's where new connections are made.

(3.) take risks

they can be small ones. This was one of my points when I talked about passion as well. Creating new habits involves exploring new territory.

(4.) have a point with your view

in other words, put substance behind the approach. Do your homework, be prepared to defend and discuss a topic intelligently and willingly.

(5.) keep your promises

this is valid at individual and organizational level. Coming through, following up helps you maintain integrity of purpose and build credibility.

(6.) say it another way

if at first it doesn't work, assume it's because your question, request, or inquiry were not clear to the recipient. Look for an example, a story, some other way to make it easier to understand.

(7.) show it

whether it's support, empathy, or active listening, actually demonstrating it is a faster route than a few well-practiced words. Non verbals work wonderfully here.

(8.) connect actively

if needs be, do it then and there. Forward the message, make the introduction, help people see what they have in common, draw them together.

(9.) write it down

inevitably, you will get ideas in the course of connecting. Make sure you have a way to capture them - I still do it the 1.0 way, on notepads.

(10.) let them know you thought of them

this is the nice touch that takes very little time. Depending upon your relationship stage and communication channels open, find ways to show you noticed or thought of someone habitually.

(11.) be present to opportunities

really, you don't need to build Rome in a day, as the expression goes. It's sufficient to be willing to see an opportunity when it presents itself.

(12.) think beyond your close circle

now that we're talking more about circles, as many experienced professionals know, it is often the people your contacts know who are most interesting to connections because they are removed from your day to day.

Emphasis and care are put into selecting a team, working with doers, having confidence that you're making a good decision. In an increasingly interdependent world, it is also important to take a closer look at who has influence in your ecosystem.

When we think about spheres of influence, we neglect to take into account variances based upon peer network access over time. As we grow, and our influence and access grow so do those of our peers.

Rajesh Setty reminds us that every person in a network has their own sphere of influence that grows with their growth, and answers why some smart people fall hard from the top. The conversation about power and influence is one that is about both/and.

Burning bridges has a higher cost and compounds over time because while you and your direct network were all that mattered at the beginning, the network of your peers -- the ecosystem -- matters more in advanced stages of your career with greater power and influence.

This is good food for thought at a personal level and a reason to pause and examine whether we got used to "slightly" taking advantage of what's available without kindness in return. Climbing on people's backs to get to the top faster may not be such a hot idea, after all.

Do you touch base only when you need a referral or a recommendation on LinkedIn, for example? Revisit that strategy, or lack of.

Do organizations also fail to understand and harness the power of the spheres of influence in their networks as they grow? Do they neglect to keep their promises? Do they forget to take into account the ecosystem in which they operate -- partners, customers, channels -- as they map their buy side, sell side, and inside business model?

How can business leaders become more effective at recognizing and supporting the spheres of influence within and around their organizations?

Have you encountered situations where you failed in your career? What have you learned?

I'm sure many of you have had multiple opportunities to learn from failing. It may be splitting words, but to me failing as a verb is much more solid than failure as a noun. It implies something active. It reminds me of valor, or daring to do something in the first place.

Without failing, I would not know many of the limits I was able to break through. As well, without failing fast, I would not have grown as much as I have -- personally and professionally. The application of social technologies to business is so new that failing to test and try things will not lead to growth.

The most appreciated mentors, teachers, and the best among managers know that sometimes the best way is to let your people fail their way to greatness. That is extremely hard to do, yet necessary in an age of constant flux.

There are no sure ways to fail. However, you may fail to dare without embracing at least some of the ideas you have. "What if" is not a pleasant conversation to have with yourself if it's looking at what you have failed to do instead of the possibility of what you are doing.

1. Lean into the Project -- being a team player is great, but sometimes all the meeting and planning slow you and your team down. By the time you are called to implement, there is no juice left in you or your team.

Planning is important, even if it means just slowing down long enough to see the big picture. But way too often planning and meeting replace action and then you have no runway to execute. The best way to execute flawlessly is to have enough execution under your belt.

Some of the planning and process mania is a placebo for managing risk. The other placebo effect is trying to get everyone on the same page. How about working it, leveraging people's skills, and pushing through the dip?

Lack of speed is also a symptom of a culture that delays and reacts a lot.

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2. Decide now, Adjust as you Go -- it's much easier to make course corrections once you are on a course to begin with. Ask yourself, what more am I going to learn by waiting? Probably not much. Who benefits from lack of action? Maybe the competition.

There is also something to be said for listening to your gut. Do you do that? Your gut is the instinctual part developed through experience.

When you remain flexible through the execution phase you can also incorporate a lot of ideas and feedback from your team and customers. You won't have any of that to work with unless you decide to do in the first place.

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3. Do as you know how to best, not as you're told -- before everyone gets up in arms about this one, I'm talking about creating something instead of copying what has worked before - "this is the way we do things" does not work forever.

This is especially valid when you are copying what your competitors are doing.

You do not see what's behind their tactics. One of my favorite phrases in favor of not benchmarking too much is that just because everyone else is doing something, it does not mean it's the right thing to do for you.

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4. Pick the hill on which to die -- be very selective on how you spend your political capital and that of your team. Especially when you're new - in the job and on a project. If you stick around long enough you learn what will make the day and what will not matter tomorrow.

This is especially important if you are in a service organization. By service I mean your department is not viewed as revenue-generating directly like sales and operations, but more as a cost center like finance, HR, marketing, and corporate communications.

When you pick the right battle, you help the organization manage risk meanigfully and do change effectively.

Over and over I have seen that those who get promoted, those who are chosen to lead, those who get the contract, are one and the same with those who solve problems.

With greater risk come greater rewards. This does not mean that you create the problem so you can go ahead and solve it. Leave those photo opportunities to others. People see through that fast.

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6. Focus your efforts on creating options that work -- make many small decisions that will keep the project moving forward instead of waiting to start. Planning for the long term is important. However, the market is changing at high speed and there is advantage in gaining momentum.

Can you predict where things will stand in six months, two years? Probably not. You can invest more effort into creating the conditions to succeed at multiple levels then by acting right now.

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7. Plan to launch instead of planning to plan -- the best Web sites I've written and created were the ones that had a rapid launch with iterative improvement process built in. The concept of always in beta is becoming accepted practice.

The comment about the value of planning is still valid. However, you are thinking differently if your plan is to launch in the first place. Your speed, your resolve, your attitude are different when you work that way.

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8. Take research with a grain of salt - common practice would have you pay a lot of attention to research and data. Especially in new fields, or new applications, people do not know what they don't know -- including customers.

Have you asked the right questions? Which questions are the right ones?

Useful white papers and benchmarks are often the result of most practice: deciding to think and implement in a certain way and documenting those results.

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9. Try new things -- unless you move away from your comfort zone, you will not find new shores, as the saying goes. There are ways to fail gracefully and without too much fanfare, if that helps. We're also our own harshest critics, internalizing the difference between our vision and reality.

Trying new things will help you learn to make business deals while change is happening.

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10. Test like crazy -- execute, execute, execute. Unless you do something, you will not learn what works and what doesn't. The alternative of course is to wait until you have a perfectly irrelevant product.

The critical part is to deliver on your promises and keep an eye on closing that gap.

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11. Give customers what they need -- sometimes it's not what they think they need or not the same as what they want now. Our cognitive abilities are attuned to what we're used to, which may not be the best thing for us.

The way to innovate is also to solve a problem we did not know we had, or we did not think could be solved.

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12. Do different -- this is another point for innovating. What solves a problem better?

Instead of doing a brochure like your competitor, what could you be doing? Is your business complex? How about taking a stab at simplifying it? Think construction book, dimensional conversation, games to learn, etc.

This may be uncomfortable, or you may be under pressure to deliver and forced to choose among familiar options. Think about what you may be leaving on the table if you do not try to do at least one thing differently.

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13. Quit early, if necessary -- if something is not working out, don't do more of it, do something else. This was golden advice I got many years ago and it has served me well since.

Don't send out more proposals if nobody is calling you --rethink your approach. Better yet, don't send out any proposals, ask more questions and listen instead. Build something that speaks to your skill and point people in your network to it.

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14. Over-deliver -- forget expectations, this is not about delighting. It's about surprising, innovating, creating something so unique that it earns fans, builds credibility, etc. It's also about giving a lot before asking for anything.

This is a personal mantra. So I would like to caution you on not overdoing the just giving and never asking part, lest it becomes an unbalanced situations for all parties.

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15. Embrace resistance -- when everyone in agrees and nobody pushes back it's probably too safe (and common) a solution. I've also come to believe that opposition is often an indication that you're onto something interesting. Have you found that to be true?

This is also valid for listening to those who disagree with you. They are going to teach you something you did not know before.

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16. Hire people, not keywords -- this is starting to matter more with the integration of social technologies in business. Look for passion, love of the work, curiosity, desire to learn, and teach.

Take a hard look at your automated hiring system, and at your recruiters. Are you able to read between the lines? Because that is where all of the interesting stuff is.

It's happened a couple of times in my career that a decision to interview and hire a candidate despite the keywords resulted in outstanding candidates and valuable colleagues.

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17. Tell people what their goals are and get out of the way -- as a manager, I see myself more like a coach and facilitator, someone who on occasion can inspire (people who work with me will need to confirm this one).

This is the part where sometimes you need to let your people fail by not telling them "how to" do something.

Interestingly, one of the most disliked characteristics in a manager is their inability to let go of the how to part. They micromanage. It's challenging to go from individual contributor to manager, especially in today's organizations where you're asked to do both. It pays off big dividends when you can straddle that line.

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18. Meet to decide -- when your goal is that of making a decision, the meeting has a completely different dynamic than when it is about meeting to discuss.

A decision is better than no decision in most instances and it allows you to improve and adjust instead of burning cycles - that is money you can ill afford.

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19. Reward achievement, success as well as failure -- don't fail to notice either one of them. You learn from the latter, you recognize the former. The only way to create something different is to try something new and take a risk.

When you fail to recognize any kind of achievement, you send the message that it does not matter. And it does in spades. This means you also take time to celebrate when you fail. Today's failure in "x' can be tomorrow's outstanding success in "y".

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20. Unlearn what you know -- the degree of difficulty in this one is great. The more you know, the less likely you are able to let go of what you know, because you take it for granted. Knowledge makes a great servant and a terrible master.

Start by asking a different question, looking at things from a different point of view, taking nothing for granted.

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21. Share what you know with others -- let them build on it, improve it, amend, give you feedback. This is not only valid for social media. It works in many areas of work and life. Success is becoming more and more about social capital and trust, and not about keeping the cards close to the vest.

Note to managers: this is not about expecting people to do exactly as you would.

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22. Take on only so many projects -- yes, this will probably be a problem in organizations where people are expected to be "jack of all trades". But you know what they say to complete that sentence you are "master of none".

When you don't leverage your strengths or those of your team(s), you find yourself off balance and ineffective.

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23. Take any win -- don't wait for the big one. Take them all, take them early. Do more of those. Success has a way of building confidence in yourself and your team. Repeat.

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24. Get something done today -- it may not be the right thing, but it will lead you to the next best thing and to the one following that one, which may well be the best thing you've ever come up with. We all suffer from blank paper/screen- syndrome.

Start typing, start working it and let it lead you to opportunities -- one potential failure at a time.

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25. Stop trying to be perfect -- this was the underlying message of The Big Moo and it is our grand finale. When you work hard at being perfect you miss all of the great ways to fail your way to success.

Did you know that the notion of risk is independent from the notion of value? Risk can be beneficial as well.

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What are the great strides you made in your career, business, and life because you dared to fail?